Normal

I look around the room and notice the other children sitting still. One little girl is at the table next to ours so Judah asks to go sit over there. I allow him to, but neither she nor the adults seem interested in a conversation so he doesn’t stay long. Another little boy that just came in is sitting quietly on his mother’s lap. He looks a little younger than Judah, but still old enough for comparison. It could be possible that he’s just not warmed up to the new setting yet. We did arrive on time (aka way too early in Bajan time) so Judah and Ezra already had a good run around the room and worked up quite a sweat.
When I first arrived, I wondered how the evening would go with so many tables…just sitting expected? But here were these other children sitting. Was my child missing out on being forced to sit still all day at school? I really wouldn’t want that for him, but it did cross my mind. Was he normal? What about ADHD?  

During dinner, I notice the ‘quiet boy’ is staring down at ‘The Light’. Aha! So that takes him out of the equation. I’ve seen it in church, when I’m fighting to get my kids through the sermon and wonder how the other mothers are not in the struggle with me, then I notice ‘the light’, or a snack. But we do neither in church. So struggle we do. Judah would sit for hours staring into the light if you would let him. It really is a great silencer. Smart move, mama, to bring a screen to a dinner. Note taken for next time.

It doesn’t take long for the other parents to let the gates fly. Since the stage wasn’t being used, it became the play ground, and oh, the children went wild with fun! The screen nearly got trampled and the quiet little boy wasn’t so quiet anymore. And my child was perfectly normal after all.

As the night rolled to an end, Mario started packing up chairs, and my darling firstborn helped his Daddy even as the playing went on. He walked right past them, and grabbed another chair for his Daddy to stack, keeping his focus and attention. I’d say ADHD went out the window.

The little girl did not move from her seat the entire night. Not when all the other children were playing, and not so much as to twiddle her thumb too enthusiastically. I didn’t hear her voice once, nor did I get a glimpse into her personality. I hear she did try to move once, and was met with a thump! Well, if that’s normal…I don’t want that! I imagine her guardians looked down on those ‘young parents with the wild children’ with scorn compared to the great job they were doing.
I wonder if all those adults - the ones that have 9-5s and hate Mondays but won’t do anything about it - I wonder if they stay stuck because they are afraid of that thump. Or maybe they all went to school and had to just sit there, so they think it is normal to sit at work all day and hate the thing but still do it.

It’s amazing how much your idea of ‘normal’ changes when you take a peek outside the box. Judah has too much life; Too much creativity. He would probably be seen as disruptive in class. But worse than that, suppose he actually did fit in, squeeze his great mind into the mold? Oh, what a tragedy that would be. He’d become normal.